The Lyfelens alerts your smartphone the moment it detects movement inside or near the vehicle. This crafty car appcessory can even be configured to stream live footage directly to your mobile, so any nefarious activities can be recorded in real-time. Data can either be stored locally on the device's microSD, or in the cloud. The Lyfelens comes with both an interior camera as well as an outward facing camera. This means it can be used as a dash cam as well as a security camera.

The Lyfelens can be configured to record continuously throughout every journey, so that in the event of a collision or incident within view of the front mounted cam, footage can be used as evidence. If your vehicle receives a shunt from the side or rear, you're out of luck I'm afraid. The LyfeLens can also track the vehicle’s location via GPS, and alert the owner, if the vehicle it is monitoring is stolen. There is, however, nothing to stop the thief from disconnecting, destroying or discarding the device. Presumably, for the LyfeLens to work, a dedicated 4G sim will need to be inserted, which suggests to me that the buyer will need to pay a monthly subscription, in addition to the purchase price. If this is the case, I can't see that going down too well with most potential buyers. The device's 4G connection can be used as a mobile hotspot, but these days everyone carries around 4G phones anyway, so this feature is rather superfluous, in my opinion.

Another issue I have with this gadget is that the device relies on an internal battery to keep it operational, which only lasts a few days on standby. Murphy's law dictates that the one day you forget to charge it is the day your vehicle will either get broken into, slammed into, or stolen!

You can pre-order a LyfeLens directly from the company's website at a cost of $199 (£133), shipping within the US will be an additional $20 (£14), or $30 (£20) to the UK. The estimated shipping date is November 2015.

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